Helpful Article: Preparing E-mail Queries
Here’s a great guide on how to prepare successful e-mail queries. (With lots of information on e-mail submissions, too.)
- Did you know that text should not simply be cut-and-pasted from most standard word processing programs?
- Did you know that single-screen queries are preferable? No scrolling please?
Filled with insider information even a seasoned veteran might not know. Go read “Preparing E-mail Queries” by Moira Allen of Writing-World.com.
Preparing E-mail Queries
by Moira Allen
A few years ago, only a handful of periodical publishers listed in The Writer’s Market provided e-mail addresses. Now, nearly every publisher in that directory does so. While some editors still prefer paper queries sent by surface mail, an increasing number prefer e-mail queries. Among electronic publications, such as e-zines and e-mail newsletters, that preference is almost universal. Many electronic publications will not even consider paper queries.
E-mail queries save postage and time. Your query will reach the editor in seconds rather than days. You may also receive a response within days (or even hours).
E-mail queries also have disadvantages, however. A common complaint of editors is that many writers don’t bother to prepare e-mail queries carefully. Many seem to be written in haste, with little consideration for style or presentation, and no proofreading. E-mail queries are often casual, chatty, even “cute” — qualities editors rarely find endearing.
Another problem editors frequently encounter is impatience. Just because your query may arrive within seconds, that doesn’t mean the editor is going to read it immediately, let alone respond within minutes. Nothing annoys an editor so much as a writer who starts nagging for a response within days (or hours) of sending an e-mail query.
While e-mail queries contain many of the same elements as traditional “paper” queries, they also contain elements that need special attention. These include:
The Header
With e-mail, you can’t impress an editor with nice paper or a snappy letterhead. Instead, you must rely on your header to provide vital information about yourself and your query. Be sure to put the right information in these sections:
- To: Address your query to the right person at the right address. Try to locate the exact e-mail address of the editor you wish to contact.
- From: You probably wouldn’t sign a traditional query with a tagline like “Crystal Windsinger” or “Rafe Moondragon.” If you use such an nickname to communicate online, however, it may slip into your query by mistake. Be sure to set up an alternate, professional “personality” in your e-mail program that includes your real name and a professional-sounding e-mail address.
- Subject: Include the word “Query” in your subject line, along with a brief (two to three word) description of your proposal — e.g., “Query: Cancer in Cats” or “Query: Writing for Pet Magazines.” Never leave this line blank. Avoid cuteness or excessive informality; a subject line like “May I have a moment of your time?” looks too much like “spam” and could cause your query to be deleted.
The Text
The easiest way to handle the text of an e-mail query is to treat it just like a traditional query. (See “How to Write a Successful Query Letter” for details on what to include in a query.) However, many editors find that they actually prefer shorter queries by e-mail. This is partly a display issue: The less the editor has to “scroll” to read your query, the better.
Thus, more writers are turning to brief, one- to three-paragraph e-mail queries. The hook is often eliminated entirely, allowing the writer to get straight to the pitch, followed by a single paragraph of description, and closing with the writer’s credentials. Here’s an example of a query I received from a regular contributor to Inkspot:
Hello! I promised you a query, so here you go.”Flash What?” is an exploration of the (at-first-glance) strange medium of flash fiction. The article does not attempt to define the form, as flash is virtually undefinable, but it does identify the many styles of flash, and its many names. I cite such writers as Lila Guzman and Pamelyn Casto and their thoughts on the form. Following this, I segue into a general how-to segment on writing flash, listing three essential questions every flash writer must ask. Once that’s finished, I close out with market listings and other resources.
With flash fiction becoming more and more prevalent in the literary community, especially the online publishing world (whole zines are devoted to the medium), I think that this piece is very useful to Inkspot’s many readers who double as fiction writers.
“Flash What?” is about 1220 words long. I’ll be happy to send along the full piece if you are interested.
Thanks! Looking forward to your reply.
J. Gurley
When crafting an e-mail query, therefore, give serious thought to ways that you can “condense” your information into a compact summary that the editor can view on a single screen. Just be sure that your summary actually covers all the salient points that you wish to make!
Credentials and Clips
It’s perfectly acceptable to list your credentials in an e-mail query just as you would in a traditional query. Many writers, also use this opportunity to provide a link to a Web site where editors can learn more about the writer’s qualifications, or perhaps view writing samples. Here’s an example:
I have been chosen as a Poet of the Year 2000 for the poetry that I submitted to Poetry.com and have been invited to Reno Nevada to receive a trophy and a medallion for my poetry from the actor and poet, Ed Asner. My poetry can be seen at http://www.poetry.com.
Some editors will check the sites you list; some won’t. It’s wise, therefore, to state your credentials explicitly, and offer Web sites only as a backup. Never send “clips” in an attachment.
The Address Block
In a traditional query, your name and address and other contact information would go at the top of the page (or be incorporated into your letterhead). In an e-mail query, it should go at the bottom, below your typed signature:
Jane Smith
1042 Gloriana Lane
Whippet, IL 60606
(555)123-4567
(555) 123-4568 (fax)
janesmith@isp.com
The Signature Block
You may wish to use a standard “signature block” to include your Web site and any special credentials you’d like to list. You can also include your surface-mail address and contact information in a signature block, but be sure you only use this block for queries and professional correspondence; you don’t want to broadcast that information on the Web. Avoid overly cute signature blocks, or blocks that involve graphic elements. Save the cats, dancing weasels, and emoticons for more personal correspondence.
Removing the Gibberish
Sending a query or manuscript electronically isn’tsimply a matter of copying your material from a wordprocessingfile (such as MS Word) and pasting it into an e-mail. All toooften, a straight cut-and-paste results in a message that lookssomething like this:
%Please don,t reject my manuscript,@ the author cried, pleading ? but to no avail, as the editor wasn&t in the mood for such %gibberish@!
Even a single line of this can be annoying; having to wadethrough an entire query — or worse, a manuscript — of thisnature is beyond the patience of most editors. Kind-heartededitors will send such a submission back and ask you to fix it;less-understanding editors will simply send a rejection.
Gibberish and “nonsense symbols” are the result of transferring aword-processed document directly to e-mail without “undoing” manyof the special characters and commands that such a program (likeWord) automatically embeds in your file. Unless instructedotherwise, for example, Microsoft Word will automatically convertdashes (–) into a special dash-symbol, turn all apostrophes andquotes into “smart quotes,” transform ellipses (…) into yetanother special character, and superscript the ending of wordslike “1st” or “7th”.
These special characters look nice on the printed page, but arethe result of hidden codes in your electronic file that do not”translate” when copied into an e-mail document. Instead, thosecodes are converted into various symbols and odd characters. Anyformatting codes in your document (e.g., bold, underline, italic)will be similarly transformed. Converting your document to “RTF”format, or even “text,” does not always remove all embeddedcodes. (While it usually removes formatting codes, it may notremove “special character” codes, such as dashes or smartquotes.)
To prevent these and other e-mail problems in your submissions,be sure to take the following steps before submitting a query ormanuscript electronically:
- Turn off all special-character commands. In MS Word, you can do this by going into the “AutoCorrect” menu under “Tools.” In the “Autoformat as you type” and “Autoformat” menus, uncheck everything under “Replace as you type.” In the “Autocorrect” submenu, look at the list of automatic corrections, and delete the correction that replaces an ellipses with a special character.
- Replace special-character commands in existing documents. If you’re submitting a document that you prepared BEFORE turning off these “replace” commands, you’ll need to do a search-and-replace on the problem characters. For smart quotes, simply enter a single quote in the “find” and “replace” box and do a “replace all”; this will correct all apostrophes and single quotes. Do the same for double quotes. To replace a dash, use the keyboard combination [option hyphen] to enter the dash in the “find” box; replace it with [ — ]. To replace ellipses, use the keyboard combination [option ;] in the “find” box, and replace with […].
- Double-space between paragraphs. E-mail wipes out tabs, which means that a manuscript that relies on tabs to indicate new paragraphs will end up as a nearly solid block of text. If you don’t want to double-space manually, simply do a search-and-replace on the “paragraph” character. (In Word, click on “More” in the find-and-replace menu. The paragraph command is the first item under “Special” — hit this option once for the “find” box and twice for the “replace” box.
More Do’s and Don’ts
Editors will be even happier with your electronic submissionsif you follow these guidelines:
DO use a large, readable font. Sometimes I feel the urge to senda query back simply because it seems to be written in electronicmicro-print. Make sure your font size is set to “normal” — orto a minimum of 12 points. If you’re not sure how “large” yourtype looks (it may look fine on your own screen), ask someoneelse how your e-mails look.
DO include an appropriate subject header. A header such as”QUERY: (article title/subject)” or “ARTICLE SUBMISSION: Title”always works well.
DO keep e-mail queries as short as possible. While paper queriesshould be kept to a single page (if possible) because that’seasiest for an editor to read, keep in mind that an e-mail “page”often translates to the size of an editor’s screen. Try topresent your query succinctly enough to minimize (or eliminate)the need to scroll through your message.
DON’T use HTML formatting in your e-mail. Turn off any commandsthat automatically convert your e-mail to an HTML document.
DON’T use colors. Just as you wouldn’t type a query in yellow ink,don’t send an e-mail query in any font color other than black.
DON’T use emoticons. These are more appropriate for personal correspondence.
DON’T send any “involuntary” attachments. If your e-mail programis set up to send a “vcard” attachment, turn off that option.Editors have been worried about electronic viruses long beforethey began to worry about surface-mail viruses, and many willdelete a message that is flagged with an attachment without evenreading the e-mail itself.
DON’T send “clips” as attachments. It’s always difficult to sendclips with electronic queries. One option is to state theavailability of clips, to be sent by e-mail or surface mail onrequest; another is to provide links to online clips. (It’sperfectly acceptable to set up a website of your own where youcan place scanned or HTML’d copies of your previously publishedarticles, to use as a “clip portfolio” — even if you don’tmake the material “publicly available.”)
DON’T send a submission as an attachment unless a publication’sguidelines specifically state that this is acceptable, or unlessyou have authorization from the editor.
DON’T expect an editor to respond to an e-mail submission”instantly.” Although some editors do respond more quickly toe-mail submissions than to surface mail, assume that apublication’s published response time still applies, no matterhow you submit material. Nothing irritates an editor like awriter who asks after a submission only days after sending it in.
DO keep a copy of all correspondence with editors. This willmake it much easier for you to send a copy of your original queryif you need to follow up. One way to handle this is to create afolder in your e-mail directory for “queries and submissions”that are still awaiting response, and another for queries andsubmissions that have received a reply. By checking your”awaiting response” file, you can easily determine, by the datesof your e-mails, when a submission should be followed up.
The ability to contact editors electronically has made life mucheasier for writers around the world. To retain this ability,however, we must make sure that we make life as easy as possiblefor our editors as well!
Moira Allen, editor of Writing-World.com, has published more than 350 articles and columns and seven books, including How to Write for Magazines, Starting Your Career as a Freelance Writer, The Writer’s Guide to Queries, Pitches and Proposals, and Writing.com: Creative Internet Strategies to Advance Your Writing Career. Allen is a contributing editor for The Writer and has written for Writer’s Digest, Byline, and various other writing publications. In addition to Writing-World.com, Allen hosts the travel website TimeTravel-Britain.com, The Pet Loss Support Page, and the photography website AllenImages.net. She can be contacted at editors “at” writing-world.com.
Reprinted with permission from Writing-world.com
